Dobbs's Outspokenness Draws Fans and Fire

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

Published: February 15, 2006

Night after night, Lou Dobbs slides into his anchor chair, turns to the camera and becomes the sober and steady face of CNN. At 60, he has more than three decades of experience, silvering hair and a voice that rumbles with authority. And for most of his program, he looks and feels like a traditional, nothing-but-the-news television host.

Then the topic turns to illegal immigration, and the sober newsman starts breathing fire.

Mr. Dobbs batters the Bush administration for doing too little to stop millions of migrants from slipping across the border with Mexico. He slams businesses and advocacy groups for helping illegal aliens thrive here. He hails the beleaguered officials who struggle to enforce immigration laws. As his scorching commentaries spill across the nation's television screens, first-time viewers might be forgiven for rubbing their eyes in wonder.

Here is Mr. Dobbs, discussing the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to legislation that would make it a federal crime to assist illegal immigrants: ''Tonight, the effort to secure this nation's borders has a new opponent. It is the Catholic Church.''

Here he is on the Minutemen, the civilians labeled ''vigilantes'' by their critics for patrolling the border -- sometimes armed -- in search of illegal immigrants: ''I support the Minuteman Project and the fine Americans who make it up in all they've accomplished, fully, relentlessly and proudly.''

And here he is criticizing the White House: ''How about a congressional investigation of this administration that refuses to enforce either immigration laws or border security, period?''

Mr. Dobbs has been speaking his mind more frequently about various subjects -- including the outsourcing of American jobs -- since he ended his long-running business program ''Moneyline'' and started his general-news program, ''Lou Dobbs Tonight,'' in 2003. But he is touching particularly sensitive nerves these days as the debate over immigration legislation, currently under consideration in Congress, heats up around the country.

Many conservatives praise him for giving a rare national platform to people who fear that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans, fueling violent crime and threatening national security. Critics deride him as anti-immigrant, racist and biased, charges he fiercely denies. One Democratic congressman was so incensed that he stood up on the House floor last year to denounce Mr. Dobbs's continuing series ''Broken Borders'' as a ''broken record.''

But Mr. Dobbs remains unapologetic. He says he has no interest in assuming the conventional role of the anchor who reports the news dispassionately. His mission, he says, is to tell American viewers the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or controversial.

''There's nothing fair and balanced about me,'' said Mr. Dobbs, tweaking his Fox News rivals' slogan, as he settled into his office overlooking Central Park one recent afternoon. ''Because there's nothing fair and balanced about the truth. 'He says, she says' journalism is a monstrous cop-out.''

''I happen to believe strongly and passionately that we are a nation of immigrants,'' he added. ''But only fools with an agenda can defend illegal immigration.''

He acknowledges that his criticism of illegal immigration has caused consternation, even among some CNN journalists. But over the last two and a half years, his ratings have surged. ''Lou Dobbs Tonight'' drew 631,000 viewers on an average night in 2005, a 28 percent jump from 2003, when it started, according to Nielsen Media Research. (''Special Report With Brit Hume,'' the Fox newscast that runs against Mr. Dobbs on weeknights from 6 to 7, has more than twice as many viewers.)

Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN's domestic networks, said CNN had been encouraging anchors and journalists to bring more personality to the news.

''You're seeing the passions of our journalists show up on television rather than being left on the newsroom floor,'' Mr. Klein said.

''People have come to expect Lou Dobbs to hold opinions about things,'' he added. ''And from an audience perspective, everything Lou is doing is working.'' CNN officials emphasize that Mr. Dobbs, a lifelong Republican, hammers targets across the political spectrum, criticizing Republicans and business executives who support transferring jobs abroad as well as those who hope to legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

But by repeatedly presenting his forceful opinions on illegal immigration and other subjects -- on ''Moneyline'' he criticized the Justice Department for indicting the accounting firm Arthur Andersen in the Enron scandal -- Mr. Dobbs has stepped squarely into the debate over whether cable news anchors are breaching the bright line that has traditionally separated commentary from news.

''What Dobbs is doing falls in the sort of the tradition of reportorial journalistic advocacy,'' said Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. ''It may not be straight reporting in the classical sense, but it certainly falls in the tradition of point-of-view journalism.''